Some types of data storage media are in the form of discs, which are rotated at a specified rate adjacent a data transducer. Data are often written to an optical disc as a pattern sequence of pits and lands (marks) that provide different optically reflective responses to an optical pickup mechanism. Data can be written to magnetic discs as a series of magnetic transitions by a read/write transducer, which are subsequently recovered by sensing the magnetic flux transition patterns. Other types of media can utilize various other types of storage and readback configurations.
Various transducers can be used to access these and other types of media, and such transducers may be coupled to movement mechanisms, such as actuators, that move the transducers radially adjacent the media while the media are controllably rotated. Such actuators can have various geometries, such as linear or rotary. Generally, a linear actuator advances a transducer is a substantially linear path across the medium, whereas a rotary actuator may rotate about a pivot point adjacent an outermost diameter of the medium (such as via a voice coil motor, VCM) to advance a transducer along an arcuate path across the radius of the medium.
Data stored to a particular medium may be written by the same, or by a different, mechanism used to read back the data. When different styles and/or geometries are utilized to write data to readback data, the data written to the medium by a first mechanism may not be placed in an optimal relation to the physical medium for subsequent readback by a different, second mechanism.